


Rose Without Thorns

by shopfront



Category: Little Women (2019)
Genre: Autumn, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Living Together, Post-Canon, Walks In The Woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27150914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Jo hires one more person to work in her school, not realising she's also about to get everything she unknowingly wanted in the process.
Relationships: Josephine March/Original Female Character
Comments: 14
Kudos: 23
Collections: Shipoween 2020 - The Halloween Ship Exchange!





	Rose Without Thorns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [m_madeleine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_madeleine/gifts).



“You’ll do yourself an injury if you keep trying to do it like that,” said an unfamiliar voice, interrupting Jo’s quiet fury at the hole in her coat sleeve. She could not seem to make it lay smooth for mending no matter how hard she tried.

Looking up with a frown, Jo found a young woman standing over her and warming herself by the fire. Her long hair and bright eyes were familiar from Jo having seen her around in passing as she'd settling into the boarding house, but they had not yet been introduced.

“I know, I’m terrible at it. My sister mended all my things before I left so this exact situation wouldn’t occur. Only I caught my sleeve on a nail chasing little Tommy and well, now here I am,” Jo said sheepishly as she put the coat down, clumsily trying to slip the needle into the fabric to hold it safe and offer a hand to shake at the same time. “My name’s Jo.”

“I’m Rose,” was the reply. Rose deftly slipped the coat out of Jo’s grip as she shook her hand, catching the needle against the coat with a fingertip when Jo’s attempts to secure it proved insufficient. “I know who you are, you’re the new teacher for the children. I do most of the household’s mending work so I might as well help you with yours, too.”

“Well, thank you! I’m hardly going to argue with you about an offer like that,” Jo said with a grin as she scooted her chair back from the fire, making a space for Rose to reach the armchair beside her.

She’d almost avoided monopolising both chairs out of politeness, except that she usually needed somewhere other than her lap to lay out her items for mending if she didn’t want to accidentally sew something to the dress she was already wearing and sometimes even her trousers under that. Her room was too dark for sewing, and the common areas hadn't yet grown too crowded for the evening so Jo hadn’t felt guilty about taking up the extra space.

Now that Rose had appeared though, Jo found she was rather glad to have the spare chair handy. She wasn’t shy about taking the seat when it was offered, and Jo caught her looking over from under her eyelashes as she worked.

“What do you do then? When you’re not mending sorry looking coats, that is,” Jo asked gently, like she might have with Beth or one of the Hummel children if she didn’t want to spook them.

“I’m a seamstress,” Rose said, her voice growing more confident as she focused on sewing in quick, tiny stitches. “I’m learning to be one, anyway. It’s not so bad, I just do repairs and odd-jobs most of the time. I was lucky to find a place with a dressmaker my mother knows. She’s always saying she’s too busy to keep up with her work on her own but not enough to properly train an apprentice, so she doesn’t mind showing me a few things if I help her out for cheap. Mrs. Kirk gives me a good price for my board here in exchange for the extra mending, so it works out- oh!”

Rose’s head flew up, her hands stilling as her cheeks flushed. She looked mortified at saying so much to a stranger in her distraction, but Jo leant in quickly before she could get too flustered.

“Don’t worry, she gives me cheap board as well for teaching the little ones,” Jo said in a stage whisper with a wink. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Her laughter was sudden and shocked, but there was a brightness to it that Jo couldn’t help but smile at. “Alright then,” was all Rose said as she turned back to her work with a nod.

It didn’t take her very long for draw the tear closed, her stitches disappearing inside the seam like magic before Jo’s eyes.

“This coat needs a few more repairs than just this sleeve,” Rose said when she was done, turning it over in her hands with a critical eye.

Aghast, Jo peered at it more closely with her. “Oh no, Meg would be so cross with me if she knew! After all her hard work, too. I swear I do try to be careful with my things, but it’s so much easier said than done.”

Chuckling, Rose reached for more thread. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve running into you today,” Jo said gratefully. “I have an important appointment tomorrow that I really do wish to look my very best for.”

“I’m sure that’s not too difficult,” Rose said absently. Surprised, Jo glanced over and found her watching Jo again with wide eyes and her mouth a little ‘o’ of dismay. Blushing harder, she ducked her head over Jo’s coat. “I just, I mean- well, your hair is very fine and this coat will be also once it’s mended.”

Biting her lip, Jo fought a smile and tried to remember all her promises to be humble. She did tuck a lock of that same very fine hair behind her ear though, and her stomach fluttered when Rose’s gaze darted back up to watch the movement.

It really, _really_ wouldn’t do to let herself be vain in front of a new friend.

“I don’t suppose there’s anything you might read aloud?” Rose asked, interrupting Jo’s thoughts. “It helps me concentrate, you see. Normally while I’m working I can hear the customers talking in the front of the shop and the door bell jangling all the time.”

“Oh, um,” Jo said, casting her eyes around. There was only the Banner by her side and nothing else of interest that she could see.

“What were you looking at just before? I saw you in here with something when I first came in the door earlier. I’d be happy to hear whatever it was that was making you smile so,” Rose said.

Stumped, Jo looked down at the page which the paper was still open to. It was just her old prizewinning story which she’d been reviewing for confidence before her meeting with Mr. Dashwood.

Taking a deep breath, she picked it up.

“I suppose I could… though it’s only the Blarneystone Banner,” she said awkwardly. Hesitating a moment, she risked a look over - suddenly certain that it would somehow be entirely plain for Rose to see that it was her own hand at work in the piece even if her name was not printed on the page.

Rose’s bright eyes were only gazing straight back at her though and buoyed by the sparkle in them, Jo found it in herself to take a deep breath and start reading.

*

Meg found her, as always, in a classroom. It was the first day in a long time since anyone had been able to sing out to Jo from the door and actually be heard through much of the house, so for once Jo heard her coming.

“Half of the children’s coats are still frayed and insufficient for the weather so we told them to stay home if it snowed. The remainder we've combined with Mr. Bhaer’s class,” Jo said, answering Meg’s unasked question once she heard the classroom door swing cautiously open. Pushing her hair out of her face, she felt the rough grittiness of chalk dust spread against her cheek and sighed again but didn’t bother trying to remove it. “The boys are usually better outfitted so there were more of them, but the group is still barely big enough to fill a room. I thought I might as well get the board set up in here for my morning lessons tomorrow though, perhaps my optimism might even draw out the sun for us and melt it all away again.”

Still engrossed with the board, an arm intertwining with hers was the first Jo realised of Meg having crossed the room to join her. “I’m sure all of them will return to you soon and be better prepared next year to trek through any early snowstorms,” she murmured reassuringly, laying her head down on Jo’s shoulder.

Jo paused for a moment, enjoying the warmth of her embrace before deciding the rest of the board could wait for now. “Perhaps. I might have more luck keeping them here if I could afford to replace their clothes for them. I had a half-hysterical thought of trying to repair some things for them myself the other day, especially for the littlest Clemons girl who always seems to lose her best things and even though you know full well how poor my darning is.”

Meg’s laughter as she straightened up was the bright antidote to Jo’s day of fretting. “I’d help you with them myself if I thought I could find the time. It’s a shame you can’t employ a tailor here as well as half of everybody else that we know,” she teased as she turned Jo to face her. Her fingers were light as she brushed away the chalk and straightened the neckline of Jo’s vest.

Jo stared at her. “You’re a genius!” she cried, just as Meg’s brow had begun to furrow in concern about her silence.

“I’m a what?”

“A tailor! I should employ a tailor, or some other position to be filled by a person who has not my distaste for darning and mending!” Jo hurriedly crushed Meg to her chest in a grateful hug and squeezed her until she squeaked, before dashing away in search of pen and paper. Meg’s laughter followed her out of the room as Jo called back over her shoulder, “I already know just the person, too!”

*

“Is it acceptable?” Jo asked nervously as she watched Rose look about the room. She’d already peered into the cupboards and opened the window to lean out, staring down at the back garden which was still filled with rows of easels waiting for Amy’s afternoon class. “I know it’s not much to make up for the low wages to start, but-”

“It’s beautiful, Jo,” Rose said, looking back over her shoulder.

Her face was lit by the sun, still hanging out of the window as she was. Jo’s breath caught as the light seemed to set her hair ablaze and turn it into a thousand burnished colours all at once, the brown that it had always seemed in the city suddenly threaded through with reds and golds that dazzled her. She could only watch in stunned silence as Rose ducked back inside and reached for her bag, heaving it up on the foot of the bed with a thump that broke the spell.

“It really is more than enough, as I think you well know,” she was saying as she opened it up and began to pull out piles of clothing. “There is also plenty of space in here for me to start taking in sewing work once I’ve caught up on the children’s mending. What more could I possibly ask for?”

“We do have other rooms in this part of the house where the children can’t go, if you’d prefer a different view or need more light. Or I’m just down the hall, if you’d like to switch? It’s a little quieter, being further back from the staircase, and I sometimes stay the night with my family anyway so it wouldn’t be much of a bother….“

Rose’s hands stilled over her belongings, then she put down the dress she was holding and walked over to Jo. Grasping her by the hands, she leaned in close and winked. “I could say I’ve never had better room and board, but I haven’t tried the food here yet so I can’t be sure. If it’s anything like the room though, I imagine it can only be a step up.”

Chuckling, Jo shook her head. “I think we can probably rustle up something a bit better than Mrs. Kirk’s cooking, I can at least promise you that.”

Clicking her tongue, Rose waved a hand dismissively as she turned back to her things. “Oh, I don’t know. I have fond memories of that thing she used to do with the mutton; do you remember?”

“Fond?” Jo asked incredulously, giving into real laughter. “Oh no, don’t say that. Then I might have to make sure someone recreates it for your welcome dinner, and that would be too terrible for words! Say you don’t mean it, Rose. Please, you must say you didn’t mean it.”

Rose’s eyes captivated Jo as she refused with a toss of her head, dancing out of reach with more laughter when Jo tried to catch her and shake the words out of her.

“Well, if you insist,” was all she cried when Jo finally caught her, cornering her by the window and grasping her by the waist to make her shriek as Jo threatened to lift her off of her feet if she wouldn’t relent. “I’ll disavow the mutton, I will, I will!”

As she relented, the words were nearly swallowed up by her laughter. The sound of it rang out through the open window, and for a moment Jo was relieved that Amy and her pupils had not yet made their way outside to overhear them. Rose’s familiar laugh was just for her, and for now Jo was happiest to jealously guard it as such.

*

“Why, hello there,” Jo said with a small smirk, keeping her face turned down towards her book.

“I want to go for a walk today because we never seem to find the time on class days,” Rose announced as she dropped onto the bench beside Jo and began to roughly lace herself into a pair of boots.

Jo thought they looked familiar, like an old pair of Amy’s which she’d discarded before her trip to Europe. They didn’t go with Rose’s dress, and they certainly didn’t match the trousers Rose had put on under her skirt because those were clearly Jo’s and secretly borrowed from her closet. Everything Rose owned always matched her other clothes beautifully even when they were simple. These only matched the same trousers Jo had put on that morning which were one pair from a numerous set. Marmee'd had them made from a bolt of tweed which Jo had uncharacteristically fallen in love with, while rightly pointing out that a single pair probably wouldn’t last Jo very long at all.

There was no mistaking the colour of them when she’d been looking at the fabric across her own legs all morning while reading, enjoying the ability to stretch out properly for once with no peeping children or sisters to talk about her lack of skirt.

“I know you said the ground is becoming treacherous at this time of year and that I’m not used to it, but I am determined. If I’m going to live here, I need to become familiar with what all the seasons are like outside of the city. You’ll just have to catch me if I fall!”

Slipping the piece of card she’d been making do with as a bookmark into the correct place, Jo put her book aside. “I suppose I could do that, if only to stop you from destroying another pair of my trousers. I’m quite capable of doing that all by myself, you know,” she said.

Rose just gave her an unimpressed look as she tied the last knot in her laces.

“In fact, it would be my pleasure to take you for a walk,” Jo said, leaping to her feet and dragging Rose up with her. She shrieked as Jo whipped her around. “Careful now! Best check you have your bearings in those old boots before we set off. I won’t go easy on you if you truly want to experience the worst that Concord in the fall has to offer!”

“I don’t think I told you what a fright you gave me when you wrote to offer me a place here,” Rose said once they’d cleared the backyard and found their way to one of the many paths through the trees behind Jo’s schoolhouse.

“A fright?” Jo asked, shocked by the very idea. “I know it wasn’t all that tempting of an offer, being only a dollar or two a week for the mending and some chance that Concord’s dressmaker always running late with her orders might mean you’d be able to find some work of your own more easily here; but a fright?”

“Don’t forget the meals, a roof over my head, and you or your family to keep me company whenever you’re not all too busy with the students,” Rose disagreed. Her cheeks dimpled when she smiled, tossing her head back to watch the birds in the trees above them and trusting Jo to keep her to the safest parts of the path. “And you, Jo. You must know-”

Jo swallowed hard. “What must I know?”

“I didn’t think I would ever marry,” Rose said after a long pause, her face still upturned.

Biting her lip, Jo nodded slowly as she tried to keep her expression still and easy. “No, I don’t suppose I ever will either.”

Something in her voice must have betrayed her tension however, because Rose turned her eyes from the trees and pulled Jo to a stop. She wouldn’t release Jo though, only moving her grip from Jo’s elbow to her hands. “That is why I am so grateful for you. Jo, you-”

Jo’s mouth was dry and she thought her palms were probably clammy. Her fingers twitched as she was suddenly flooded with fear that Rose would notice and wishing she’d thought to go inside to find her gloves, only Rose didn’t seem to care. She only gripped Jo’s hands harder as she searched Jo’s face, like she could never look at Jo for long enough.

She really wished Rose wouldn't, not if she was about to say she'd fallen in love and was leaving. Jo didn't think she could bear that.

“Rose, I- That is, I-”

“You promised you’d write me every week without fail after you left New York, and you did,” Rose said, speaking over her. “I don’t think I can tell you quite how I came to depend on it after you left. I’d never minded the city before, but it wasn’t the same with you gone. Even if all there was for me here was the mending, even if you hadn’t been right about the dresswork, Jo....“

Still helplessly lost for words, Jo could only wait to be put out of her misery. Whatever Rose, beautiful Rose whose hair so perfectly matched the falling leaves around them and whose company Jo could never possibly have hoped to keep to herself forever, had to say, it was likely to be terrible.

Beautiful Rose, who was smiling now and holding Jo’s hands ever so much tighter. Jo’s fingers had started to ache under the strength of her grip, but she couldn’t bring herself to care when her heart was breaking all over again.

“Jo,” Rose said again, leaning in a little closer until she was close enough to lean her head against Jo's if she wished. “I would have come to Concord for _you_ at any time I swear it, you only had to ask. Any time at all, Jo.”

*

“Sometimes doing what is wise isn’t the same as doing what is right,” Amy said in a contemplative tone one afternoon while they were collapsing all the student easels and stacking them to be taken back indoors later.

Surprised, Jo turned to look at her with raised eyebrows as she placed the last easel on the pile. “When did you come to that conclusion?”

Amy’s face softened as she looked down at her hands. “In Europe, I suppose. You know that I turned down Fred Vaughn?”

“For marriage?” Jo asked, still staring.

“Yes, Jo, for marriage,” Amy said, sounding exasperated now as she linked their elbows and started walking back towards the house, forcing Jo to either join her or stumble. “I’m sure you can imagine the look on Aunt March’s face when I told her what I’d done.”

Jo grimaced. “Was it for-”

“It was for myself, mostly,” Amy said, her tone turning thoughtful again. “I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but it was. I’d already chosen not to love him properly after all and I don’t think anything could have swayed me from that.”

Confounded by this more serious side of her grown-up sister which she still hadn’t gotten used to, Jo allowed silence to stretch out between them.

“I could tell you that this relationship of yours isn’t sensible but then you’ve never really done what I thought was sensible, have you?” Amy continued after a long moment. Her grip on Jo’s arm tightened. “No, don’t say anything. Don’t tell me anything, Jo. It’s better if I don’t hear it. I know you’ve never wanted to marry, and I’m… _happy_ to see you with such a dear friend. Let’s leave it at that, shall we? For now, at least.”

Jo turned that over in her mind, mulling on the thought of it. “Alright,” she said at last, and pretended not to hear Amy’s relieved sigh. Then she slipped her arm free, only holding on long enough to give Amy’s arm a sharp, petty tug before she released her. “Race you back,” she cried as she started to run.

She heard irate words behind her about the unfairness of taking a head-start when Jo didn’t have half as many petticoats, but she paid them no heed. Laughing, she turned her face into the biting chill of the autumn breeze and ran until her eyes pricked with tears. All the way Amy was just behind her like she’d always been, unable to ever quite catch her up.

*

Jo straightened her tie nervously and fussed with the buttons on her waistcoat while she waited, twirling the bloom in her other hand nervously.

“What do you have there? Did you go for a morning walk without me?” Rose asked as she descended the stairs, startling Jo who had been too lost in her thoughts to notice footsteps.

“Oh, um, I didn’t go very far. This is for you,” Jo said awkwardly as Rose reached her. “It was the last one left on the bush by the back gate. I saw it yesterday and thought you might like it, I've already picked off the thorns for you.”

“But you hate roses,” Rose said with a laugh as she plucked it from Jo's hand.

“I do. I probably shouldn’t, but I do,” Jo admitted. “Or I did, what I mean is that I _did_ hate roses; horrid, fussy things that they are. Until I met you, Rose. Now I don’t see their fussiness at all anymore and instead all I see is their beauty because they remind me of you.”

Rose’s smile was blinding as she dipped her head to smell the petals before she tucked it into the lace at her collar. “There, how fine it looks against my dress,” she said softly. Reaching out a hand to caress Jo’s cheek, she continued, “and how fine you look this morning, too.”

Blushing, Jo turned her face into Rose’s hand. “I suspected you were going to wear your yellow dress today so I picked my necktie to match. You look beautiful. I’m afraid I’ve had to put a skirt over my trousers for church though so Meg doesn’t scold me again, and they don’t go together half so well as your things always do.”

“You still look fine, because my Jo always looks perfect to me,” Rose insisted as she tipped back Jo’s bowler hat so that she could kiss the same cheek she'd been caressing. Then she moved a little to the side so she could find Jo’s mouth with her own and, thrilled to her very fingertips, Jo couldn’t bring herself to pull away, even though they were already very late.

“We should leave,” she murmured against Rose’s lips, but Rose only shushed her.

“Amy offered to bring the carriage by for us today,” Rose said back between kisses, her voice equally quiet. “We have all the time in the world.”


End file.
